Friday, May 24, 2013

Nokia Lumia 2014

When Nokia delivered their Lumia 2014 flagship we were pleasantly
surprised with the quality and possibilities of that device but there
was still space where this company could bring improvements. With Nokia
Lumia 925 they are trying and since it offers better software, display
and overall design they managed to push the bar further.

Let’s
break down the changes. The thick and heavy polycarbonate unibody is
gone, with an exposed aluminum frame and polycarbonate back taking its
place. The diet has shaved 36g and 2.2mm off the waistline of the Lumia
925.

Part of that is the new AMOLED screen, which is thinner than
the LCD of the older phone. It has the same basic specs – a 4.5″
diagonal, WXGA resolution, Gorilla Glass 2, ClearBlack and Super
sensitive touch. But we believe that AMOLED is a better match for
Windows Phone – LCDs just don’t do the interface justice. AMOLEDs simply
render colorful squares on a black background better.

The changes will make their way to older Lumia phones with the Amber update, but the Nokia Lumia 925 is leading the way.

Smart
Camera is a Lens add-on for the stock camera app, though it can fully
replace it. You can even set it as the default camera app to launch by
long pressing the shutter key. So what is Smart Camera? It’s the result
of the Scalado acquisition and offers features similar to HTC’s Zoe.
We’ll review it in more detail later on in this article.

The
camera itself is the same as what the Lumia 920 has, which is to say
pretty good. It has a Carl Zeiss lens with f/2.0 aperture, an Optical
Image Stabilization mechanism and a 1/3″ image sensor of 8.7MP
resolution.

First impressions There’s little doubt that the
Lumia 925 is the best smartphone to come out of the Nokia R&D center
yet. It may lack the refined seamless design of the Lumia 920, but its
much slimmer waistline certainly has the high-end vibe, which is all too
crucial for a product in this price range. The far lower weight also
improves portability, making the latest Nokia flagship less of a burden
than its predecessor.

If you have already fallen for the live
tiles of the Microsoft platform, the Nokia Lumia 925 is certainly going
to become the phone to get. In fact we can’t help but wonder why this
wasn’t the flagship that Nokia released last Fall. All the technology
was available back then (save maybe for the new 6-element lens) and a
slim waistline would have enabled the Finns to compete with the very
best on the market.

Now however, others have moved to quad-core
Kraits, 13 megapixel cameras and 1080p screens – hardware that is yet to
be supported by Windows Phone. The limitations of the Microsoft
platform might prove costly for the Nokia Lumia 925, which while packing
the best specs in its own camp, looks decidedly inferior compared to
the latest crop of Android powerhouses.

Then again, improving on
an already solid shooter might be enough to make the Nokia Lumia 925
relevant. Windows Phone 8 matures quickly and as its Store gets filled
with more and more apps, it’s becoming a viable alternative to many
users, who wouldn’t have even considered it back when the Lumia 920 was
released. And if you are still sitting on a fence, then the best
OIS-enabled camera on the market, coupled with a great AMOLED screen
might be more than enough to nudge you in the direction of the latest
Finnish flagship.